11:04 p.m. - 2004-04-03
the big three-oh
Wow. It's been a busy 24 hours.
I'm exhausted, but I'll try and recap briefly for the few of you playing along at home. ;)
Yesterday evening, Hunter and I decided to try out the Friday Night Waltz event that takes place monthly a few blocks from our place. Actually, it used to take place somewhere else, from what I hear - this was their first time in our town. Another too-convenient situation that I would have felt guilty about had I not taken advantage of it. My friend from the GDC, Daniel, alerted me to the event and was planning on being there.
As the name vaguely implies, Friday Night Waltz is a ballroom event. I'm not sure if I've ever written about ballroom crowds here, but as a general primer: I started ballroom dancing in my freshman year of college because I wanted to meet people outside of my home department (Computer Science.)
Imagine my surprise when I found out 3 weeks later that all of my newfound friends were either CS or electrical engineering. So much for meeting non-techies.
Thus, I knew from experience that ballroom crowds tend to be.eclectic. We attended hoping the normal-to-bizarre ratio would be slightly more normalized in the real world. As it turns out, this being Silicon Valley, your standard ballroom crowd doesn't actually differ that much from my alma mater's ballroom crowd. You've got the geeks, the SCA/Ren Faire types, the Strictly Ballroom folks, and the light smattering of "normal" folks. Last night, the crowd included several Google employees still sporting their GMail t-shirts, and one gentleman from SimCompany who believes he is an elf and has changed his name to an Elvish one (with no legal last name). You get all kinds.
Aaaannnyywho. We went to the waltz, held in the rec room of a local church, and were immediately frightened by the standard crowd. Maybe we didn't fit in after all. But Daniel walked in behind us at that point, and really the only polite thing to do was to pay the entrance fee and give it a chance.
We got in at the tail end of the lesson, so we watched everybody do the Redowa waltz to some bizarre Celtic music. When the social dancing started, Daniel encouraged Hunter and I to waltz, even though he doesn't know how, and we suddenly found ourselves three-stepping our way across the floor. Hunter made a valiant effort for someone who has never been formally taught.
Of course, they throw in other dances throughout the schedule to shake things up - swing dances, tangos, foxtrots, etc. etc. One particularly vague entry on the dance list for the evening was entered as "One Step." Of course, this to me sounds like hopping about the floor. When the One Step music came on - this bizarre carnival-esque cacophony of slide whistles and grand drums - Daniel again urged us to go and give it a try. Apparently, "one step" is basically freeform walking/dancing. There's just no basic. This was TOTALLY up Hunter's alley. He led with a giant grin on his face as we spun, hopped, walked, and bounced around the room in time to the music. I love seeing him enjoying himself like that.
I indulged in a few dances away from Hunter - several spinning waltzes, and Daniel taught me the Cross Step Waltz - before the "Fast Swing" number in the second set. A gentleman approached me to dance, and I accepted - only to discover to my chagrin that I am once again rusty and was having trouble remembering the Lindy Hop basic beats. As all men do, he discovered I was a fast turner and began to capitalize on the situation - at which point I was hit with a wave of serious nausea. I spent the second half of the dance convinced I was going to throw up on this guy, but in cordial ballroom fashion I smiled and completed the dance without dying.
Once I left the floor, I knew I was about done for the night. Hunter pulled me aside into the kitchen where snacks were, and instructed me to look at the snack table - to discover that during my dance, he had drawn a Togepi face on a Styrofoam cup and set it atop the coffee maker where he knew I would see it. It was adorable. (Incidentally, that cup now lives on the rear window ledge of the old Jetta.)
Since I was visibly red-faced and nauseous - but still fielding invitations to dance - it seemed prudent to leave early, having gotten a taste of the dancing. Daniel offered to teach me the Congress of Vienna before we left - it's a traditional, sort of formal dance that you tend to see in Jane Austen movies. I gladly accepted, and I must admit, I found the dance to be quite enjoyable indeed. J All I needed was an empire waisted dress and some well-placed ringlets to be positively Edwardian. Or something.
Still tired, and I haven't even discussed today's events. Aieee.
Quick version: It was D's 30th birthday, and Suz organized a surprise for him by hiring a limousine, inviting some of his good friends, and having us all visit Wine Country up in Napa for a day of wine tastings. We crammed 11 of us into a stretch limousine (with tacky fiber optic color lighting inside) and spent 9 hours touring 4 or 5 wineries and enjoying a lovely picnic lunch up in the hills of the Chateau Potelle winery. In attendance were D and Suz, VA and Chris, myself and Hunter, three of Suz's friends, and 2 of D's childhood friends.
The views were spectacular, the company grand, and much tipsy adventuring was had. It was such a gorgeous day! We started enthusiastically, consuming all of the generous portions of champagne we were provided (sparkling wine, really) - but by the end of the day, I could barely fathom lifting another glass of wine to my lips.
On the way home, in contrast to my two bottles of water, VA and Suz eagerly knocked back a bottle of Potelle wine. [VA was even more drunk than she was on that business trip we had to Seattle back in December, and that's saying something.] The ride back was really the highlight, between a limo full of people singing along to No Doubt on the radio (whee!) and VA's bizarre drunken soliloquy about Madonna and Britney Spears. ("Well, Madonna was trying to be like, `HELLO', and Britney's all like `HellOOOO', so she's obviously not the next Madonna, who needs to be like `HELL-O!'")
I bought 4 bottles of wine along the way to begin a little stockpile of our own. I must admit, I've never really experienced anything like this before. Never really ridden in a limo, toured Napa, done formal wine tasting at vineyards. None of that. Really quite enjoyable, though ridiculously tiring. And I'm sunburned. My nose is quite pink. How attractive. I'm just not used to putting on sunscreen in April.
Afterwards, we gathered at D's for awhile before going to the sushi boat place in Emeryville for dinner. They REALLY like D there. We got free rounds of sake, beers, fried bananas, oranges, and fried green tea ice cream.it was crazy. VA sobered up right before the rounds of sake came, so she's pretty much gone for the night.
All in all, a whirlwind 24 hours. Tomorrow, the plan is to go to IKEA and purchase - be still my heart - a BED! And a cabinet for our liquor! And.and.maybe even a TV stand to support the monster of a new television we've purchased!
Of course, we have not yet figured out getting the stuff from IKEA to the apartment. Wish us luck, and happy Daylight Savings Time-related day.
